Now that Congress will be looking at specific proposals regarding Social Security, we need to refocus on the real problem. The individual accounts have taken up most of the discussion and have nothing to do with the funding problem of Social Security. The issue is the ability of Social Security payout promised benefits to future retirees. The funding problem is because of the large number of people who were born after WWII. It has nothing to do with converting the system to a partially privatized system.
Congress must be re-focused on the alternatives to fund the existing system. Options include increasing the retirement age, reducing benefits and providing additional monies to increase the trust fund. The best solution is most likely a combination of all three. One issue that should be evaluated is that after the baby boomers have passed, the number of people working relative to the number of people retired will return to something more like it is today. When that happens, Social Security should be able to meet its obligations the same is it can today. In fact today, Social Security is collecting more in taxes then it is paying out in benefits!
Individual account have nothing to do with funding Social Security and we should END the discussion about individual accounts. In that way we can develop a solution of the real problem which is how to meet the retirement obligations of the baby boomers.